The J Street national conference in Washington, D.C. has emphasized that they are pro-Israeli. Yet they didnt say anything about being pro-Jewish.

This morning Jikileaks reports that the J Street organizers at the Washington Convention Center are not offering Kosher food at its Jewish conclave with more than 2,000 participants. J Street boasts that hundreds of their attendees are rabbis.

The Jikileaks person on the ground at the J Street extravaganza explained his dilemma: I arrived at the sandwich cart and requested the kosher option. I got a blank stare in return, and when I asked the manager she told me she had no idea what I was talking about. She hadnt heard anything about kosher sandwiches.

Kosher foods are those that prepared with strict rabbinic oversight. Observant Jews believe you are what you eat. Its pretty shocking that J Street was so indifferent toward their own Jewishness as to not offer any Kosher food options at its conference.

The lack of Kosher food does make sense. J Streets director once said his own staff was alienated from Judaism and once bragged to the New York Times that many instead prefer to conduct Buddhist Seders.

Nachum, have you ever been to a Reform simcha, like a wedding or bar Mitzvah? You would be shocked to see a breakfast buffet with pork bacon. Salads with cheese in them along side the meat main course. It is stunning.

J Street is a Democrat pro-Israel lobby group yet don't seem to care about this aspect of multiculturalism, one of the pillars of their party. Of course, as liberal Jews they couldn't care less about kosher eating.

I can't speak for all Reform congregations but you would never find pork served at a Wise Temple function, and this was the birth place of the Trafe Banquet.

However, offsite, all bets are off because it is what the members choose to do and this on occasion is a problem. Mostly, if folks care, the provide for kosher requirements, if they don't why are you there if they are Jews? If they are not, well, you have to know what to do with yourself. If you keep strict Kosher, nothing served in a Reform Temple will do anyway, regardless of whether the food is specifically trafe or not because it is rare for them to have the dual kitchens. Nevertheless, the Reform community is a wide dispersion of practice so that a goodly number do keep mostly kosher and this means that rarely any official event will create a situation where you are offered anything that is forbidden, but it may not always be kosher certified.

If you are orthodox and living and breathing in this world, you would know not to eat at a Reform function, any more than you would eat at the house of a non-Jew unless you knew specifically the situation of each dish that is being served. This is the basic challenge of Kosher, whether you are perfectly observant or kosherish.

In the situation of JStreet, this organization is at odds with the Jewish community as a whole even if leading members of our community are completely clueless about this. JStreet was already disgraced when they had to admit they were a Soros sock puppet. Why anyone expects any more than what you would from a room full of people who basically hate Jews is a shock to me.

Which gets down to why is the person who is writing this surprised because these folks don't even pretend to care about Jewish observance, they are evil. Gees. But, these are not representatives of Reform Judaism, so stop with the smears.

This Gentile has been studying Jewish dietary laws ever since I joined a Jewish-Christian dialogue group wherein the Conservative and Orthodox said simply that the Law is the Law when it comes to food. The Reform folks said that Kashrut was G-d’s way of providing for His people by specifying safe food preparation before the advent of modern antisepsis.

The Book of Daniel is also instructive. One of my Reform colleagues asserted that it encourages vegetarianism based upon Daniel’s culinary challenge to the king.

A coworker who took up Orthodox observance told me that yes, an hygienic kitchen makes ptomaine unlikely, but following kashrut brings one closer to the L-rd.

This Gentile has been studying Jewish dietary laws ever since I joined a Jewish-Christian dialogue group wherein the Conservative and Orthodox said simply that the Law is the Law when it comes to food. The Reform folks said that Kashrut was G-ds way of providing for His people by specifying safe food preparation before the advent of modern antisepsis.

It is important not to believe all that you are told. This is not the position of Reform, though anyone who studies the Kosher laws notes that this encourages a very healthy diet and the inspections required by someone knowledgable were very very helpful in a day and age when bacteria were not understood. There is a deep and beautiful practicality to most of the Jewish Laws and Practices. Some of the Laws are impractical or odd, and finally some are nothing short of insane.

Nevertheless, Reform is to Orthodox Judaism as Protestantism is to Catholicism. With many of the same sorts of calumnies and bitter recriminations. This is not new, it is old as old. The Hasids look at the "Orthodox" as lapsed into depravity just as the Orthodox say the same about the Reform. The Reform movement in America was begun in Cincinnati, OH but this was just a response to the Haskala movement that swept through Europe that was a response to the ugliness that grew out of the competition between the Hasidim and the Mitnagdim in the Pale and attempting to respond to the rise of the Enlightenment that had swept Europe. This was the wave of science and reason that gave birth to America just the same.

Folks would say, that it was the fences that created the problems especially for the Mitnagdim. In Kosher and in many other places in Jewish practice the Rabbi's declared normal activities as unfit because they resembled prohibited activities. This is the idea of building "fences around the Torah" and there is deep wisdom in the practice, but at the same time, the implementation gets to looking insane and silly as thin films of near hypocrisy become necessary to be "completely" observant or life comes to a screeching halt. The concept of "Sacred" meaning "separate" is deeply encouraged by these practices and this separation was thought to be the cause of Jewish persecution over the years and thus folks were looking for a different way, Worse, Orthodox shuls had become a zone of disengagement for most common Jews who wished to live a life and not be a Rabbi.

All of this isn't unique to Judaism. In fact, of the worlds major religions, Judaism sets the individual on an equal plain as any other Jew. For example the old saw, "Nine Rabbis does not a Minion make, but Ten Cobblers do."

In Reform, the Rabbi's are teachers but they are not supposed to be Community leaders in the fashion of an Orthodox or Hasid Rabbi. Instead Reform looks to the individual to find their own practice, and this extreme "libertarian" view is the author of the strength and the weaknesses of the Reform movement. Most importantly, somewhere "Libertarian" morphed in to "Liberal/Progressive" and here in lies the problem and state of affairs that the Reform Movement confronts as they have been invaded from within just the same as all of Academia and shoved to the Left.

But, these things are always in transition, and the pendulum can swing both ways. The Book of Daniel is also instructive. One of my Reform colleagues asserted that it encourages vegetarianism based upon Daniels culinary challenge to the king.

Kosher practice encourages heavy reliance on vegetarian foods because of the convenience of being Parve and not needing any Kosher supervision to be eaten and enjoyed, except you still have to double check the salad dressing and those nasty "bacon bits" that like to show up once in a while. I wouldn't look to Daniel for Kosher instruction though.

A coworker who took up Orthodox observance told me that yes, an hygienic kitchen makes ptomaine unlikely, but following kashrut brings one closer to the L-rd.

My daughter attends Liberty University, of all places, and she had discussion boards to do and the question of what does the Bible say about food was the topic. My daughter tried to explain Kosher and the meaning behind it.. and the Christian kids could care less.. until their profession said they would have all gotten a better grade if they had listened to my Daughter.

dalight gave you a good answer. Were I to summarize it, Id suggest you need to look to places other than simply physical health in understanding dietary laws.

Condescending much? I just pointed out that that the Dietary Laws are healthy.

As far as looking further, Kosher practice is religious practice. It asks us to do things that if we fail at them have very little real consequence, but as we learn to keep Kosher, we learn to control our appetites and concentrate on each desire that wells up in the context of holiness. Ultimately, the practice teaches us how to rise above being a slave of our cravings and yearnings and become the will that choses what to eat and how to act in accordance with our holy purpose.

dalight gave you a good answer. Were I to summarize it, Id suggest you need to look to places other than simply physical health in understanding dietary laws.

I misread this, but past the jabs, I did summarize the real purpose of Kosher.

Yes, you (elcid1970) should reach to other sources to understand this. The just because answer works for kids but adults need more. And fortunately, there is so much more. The Reform person who handed you that misstatement probably learned this by half listening to their Rabbi and then repeated this bit as folks are wont to do. This is why some teachings are held back especially among the learned in that they fear a rino will become a unicorn when folks are done misinterpreting them.

Nevertheless, many Reform congregants are very superficially involved in their own faith just as can be said of almost every faith in the US today. It is not a disease of Reform but a nationwide plague of the attempt to Secularize our society which bred the culture wars. Rather than pointing at this sect or that and saying they are "stupid" instead learn what are the teachings and what they are trying to accomplish and then you will have a good basis for understanding. Kosher is a great practice and it gives to those who practice it a myriad of blessings.

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